WOMAN’S 

PROGRESS  IN  JAPAN 


By  REV.  WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS  D.  D„  L.  H.  D. 

Author  of  "The  Mikado's  Empire,”  “Verbeck  of  Japan/*  etc. 


A HAPPY  JAPANESE  .MISSIONARY  KINDERGARTEN 


WOMAN’S  PROGRESS  IN  JAPAN 


HE  education  of  woman  in  Japan  in  olden  times  was  better  than  in  other  Asiatic 
countries,  but  very  few  women,  and  chiefly  those  of  the  higher  classes,  received  its 
benefits.  Altho  it  provided  knowledge,  its  great  defect  was  in  the  exaggeration 
of  subordination  at  the  expense  of  other  womanly  qualities.  There  was  no  real 
emancipation  for  woman  in  Japan  under  the  old  regime.  Christianity  came  to 
the  Island  Empire  with  a positive  message,  with  a command  to  woman  to  be  and  to  do. 

The  Japanese  woman’s  true  position  and  possibilities  may  best  be  seen  by  scanning  the  changes 
of  fifty  years.  If  within  this  time  she  has  responded  to  new  inspirations  and  has  manifested  innate 
power,  there  is  encouragement  to  expect  further  progress. 

The  five  great  epochs  of  the  history  of  Japanese  womanhood  correspond  to  those  of  the  nation’s 
development. 

1.  In  the  age  of  mythology  (before  600  A.  D.) — which  is  a veiled  period,  undated  and 
abbreviated,  before  the  days  of  clocks  or  writing — woman’s  place  was  relatively  high.  Japanese 
mythology  speaks  of  a creatrix.  The  sun  was  a female  goddess.  In  the  timeless  legends  rise  many 
striking  female  figures  in  times  of  war  and  peace. 

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2.  In  the  early  era  (600-1200  A.  D.)  of  writing,  and  the  introduction  of  Chinese  civilization, 
the  daughters  of  Japan  achieved  a unique  record.  In  the  civilizing  influences  of  early  Buddhism 
their  potency  was  primal  and  immense. 

During  this  period  there  occurred  a striking  phenomenon,  almost  unique  in  history.  It 
was  woman,  not  man,  that  made  the  literary  language  of  Japan  and  first  gave  to  the  young  nation 
works  of  imagination.  The  Genji  Monogatari  (Romance  of  Prince  Genji),  by  a court  lady,  who  lived 
in  A.  D.  1004,  is  the  acknowledged  standard  of  the  language. 

3.  During  the  medieval  period  (1200-1600),  woman  suffered  in  the  endless  wars,  often 
illustrating  the  annals  of  heroism. 

4.  During  the  supremacy  of  Chinese  learning,  and  the  prevalence  of  Confucianism  during 
the  next  period,  woman  entered  into  a state  of  subjection  and  of  degradation  previously  unknown. 
The  cardinal  virtues  which  she  was  taught  were  wholly  negative — subordination  and  obedience. 
The  Nemesis  of  this  system  is  seen  in  an  inundation  of  female  ignorance  and  lewdness,  in  a flood 
of  pornographic  literature,  in  the  rise  of  Japan’s  characteristic  institution,  the  Yoshiwara  or  licensed 
prostitution,  a system  in  which  the  government  still  glories. 

5.  The  era  of  Meiji,  or  of  Modern  Christianity  (1860),  is  marked  by  the  development 
of  education  for  girls  as  well  as  for  boys.  The  system  grew  out  of  missionary  object  lessons,  and  in 
1871  began  on  a national  scale.  There  also  arose  the  new  figure  of  the  trained  nurse,  now  organized 

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with  her  sisters  into  a great  army;  the  various  types  of  woman’s  training-schools  were  established, 
and  a woman’s  university  was  founded  in  Tokyo  by  a Christian  man. 

The  literature,  art  and  drama  of  the  past  picture  the  national  mind,  and  tell  the  story  of  those 
days.  Especially  do  proverbs,  the  verbal  coinage  of  experience,  show  the  hideous  results  of  an  over- 
wrought doctrine  of  filial  piety — daughters  were  rented  out  to  men  like  cattle,  or  were  sold  by 
thousands  into  a life  of  gilded  misery,  disease  and  premature  old  age.  The  atrocious  by-word, 
“A  father  with  many  daughters  need  not  fear  old  age,”  tells  its  own  story. 

From  all  Japanese,  of  every  shade  of  religious  belief  or  of  none,  wTe  hear  the  unanimous 
verdict — “Christianity  brought  a new  message  to  woman.” 

Fifty  years  ago  the  gospel  of  joy  began  to  move  the  hearts  of  Japan’s  daughters.  Some  of 
these,  now  white-haired,  are  still  teachers,  and  have  been  makers  of  Christian  homes  or  are  active 
in  Christian  churches. 

The  first  recognition  of  female  education  by  the  Government  of  Japan  was  when  a young 
woman,  who  had  been  under  the  instruction  of  Mrs.  J.  C.  Hepburn  of  the  Presbyterian  Mission, 
was  appointed  assistant  to  Miss  Margaret  Clark  Griffis,  in  the  first  school  opened  under  government 
auspices  in  the  castle  in  Tokyo.  To  this  school  with  its  sixty  pupils,  daughters  of  the  nobility  and 
gentry,  the  Empress  paid  repeated  visits.  In  the  book,  “Who’s  Who  in  Japan,”  for  1912,  we  find 
an  astonishing  record  of  graduates  of  this  first  school.  Many  are  wives  or  widows  of  eminent  men, 

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leaders  of  the  nation,  while  other  private  data  reveal  a remarkable  line  of  teachers  and  influential 
women,  not  a few  of  whom  are  Christians. 

Passionate  pilgrims  seeking  medical  knowledge  at  Nagasaki,  where  the  Dutchmen  had  their 
settlement,  were  the  first  harbingers  of  science  and  the  new  day.  One  of  these,  seeing  that  the 
missionary  ladies  were  helpmates  to  their  husbands,  came  to  Mrs.  Hepburn  in  Yokohama  and  ear- 
nestly requested  that  his  granddaughter  might  be  educated.  He  did  not  believe  the  sentiment — 
attributed  to  Confucius — -“a  stupid  woman  is  less  troublesome  in  the  family  than  one  that  is  wise.” 
Even  the  Mikado’s  advisers  allowed  the  strange  sentiment  to  be  inserted  into  the  famous  Imperial 
Rescript  of  1873:  “Japanese  women  are  without  understanding.” 

Mrs.  Hepburn  gladly  gathered  about  her  several  young  girls  and  began  a school  which  she 
conducted  for  several  years  and  then  turned  over  to  Miss  Mary  E.  Kidder. 

A high  officer  once  said  that  this  class  was  “the  mustard  seed  of  woman’s  education  in 
Japan.”  Full  of  fire  and  spirit,  Miss  Kidder  carried  on  the  work  for  many  years,  until  the  Ferris 
Seminary  was  organized  to  conduct  woman’s  education  on  a larger  scale.  Today,  the  Ferris  Sem- 
inary, supported  by  the  Reformed  Church  in  America,  continues  the  noble  work  begun  a half  cen- 
tury ago,  and  has  already  sent  out  into  the  empire  hundreds  of  Christian  women  who  have  founded 
Christian  homes. 

In  1870,  the  idea  of  the  education  of  Japanese  womanhood  was  slowly  percolating  into  the 

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brain  of  Japanese  statesmen.  The  intellectual  superiority  of  refined  and  educated  women,  from 
Christian  lands,  was  manifest  when  contrasted  with  even  the  most  attractive  of  Japanese  women, 
while  the  awful  degradation  of  the  millions  of  Japanese  females  was  borne  in  upon  the  minds  of 
patriots.  They  were  not  ashamed  of  being  Japanese,  but  they  were  ashamed  of  the  condition  into 
which  their  women  had  fallen  by  the  prevalence  of  degrading  ideas. 

A patriotic  impulse  moved  the  Japanese  to  action,  and  Christianity  mightily  reinforced  the 
desire  for  improvement.  The  one  most  ardent  and  determined  champion  of  the  new  ideals  for  woman- 
hood was  General  K.  Kuroda,  who  secured  the  appointment  of  five  young  girls  to  accompany  the 
great  embassy  of  1872  to  the  United  States.  He  was  ably  seconded  by  Arinori  Mori,  then  minister 
to  the  United  States. 

Three  of  these  girls  at  least  were  placed  in  Christian  homes  in  America  and,  on  their  return 
to  Japan,  became  immensely  influential.  Two  of  them  married  high  officers,  one  in  the  army  and 
the  other  in  the  navy.  The  youngest,  Miss  Ume  Tsuda,  after  long  service  at  court,  established 
her  famous  Christian  school  for  girls  in  the  capital,  served  as  President  of  the  Young  Woman’s 
Christian  Association  in  Tokyo,  and  keeps  up  vital  lines  of  communication  with  educationists  in 
America. 

Some  years  later,  a Christian  man,  Dr.  Jinzo  Naruse,  spending  a night  in  a hotel  at  Osaka, 
was  disgusted  and  pained  by  the  uproarious  noise  of  revellers  of  both  sexes.  He  pondered  the 


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Scripture  passage,  “A  virtuous  woman  who  can  find?”  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  as  long  as 
so  many  Japanese  women  were  kept  in  ignorance,  with  no  other  outlet  for  their  lives  than  minister- 
ing to  man’s  passions,  there  would  be  no  decrease  of  feminine  lewdness.  Out  of  that  night’s  thought 
and  prayer  to  God  was  born  the  resolve  to  establish  a Woman’s  University  in  Tokyo.  He  was 
assisted  in  this  enterprise  by  a few  Japanese  statesmen,  and  for  many  years  the  institution  has  done 
a noble  work  in  preparing  Japanese  women  to  be  man’s  helpmate  in  serving  God  and  in  re-creating 
the  nation. 

Unfortunately  for  Japan,  the  native  officers  at  the  treaty  ports  believed  that  the  first  two 
commercial  necessities  were  a custom  house  and  a large  house  of  ill-fame.  Out  of  this  sprang  three 
growths,  as  of  night-shade,  upas  and  poison  ivy,  which  have  cost  Japan  millions  of  money  and  have 
retarded  her  civilization.  This  unfortunate  contact  of  human  beings  at  the  selvedges  of  their 
civilizations  has  created  the  prejudices  still  strong  in  the  West  as  to  the  reputed  scoundrelism  and 
dishonesty  of  the  Japanese  merchant  and  the  low  character  of  the  average  Japanese  woman,  and 
also — not  an  opinion  but  a fact — hundreds  of  Eurasian  children,  waifs  of  society,  who  know  not 
their  fathers. 

An  earnest  appeal  was  made  to  the  Woman’s  Union  Missionary  Society  to  establish  a home 
in  Yokohama  for  these  innocent  victims  of  vice.  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Pruyn,  Mrs.  Louise  Pierson,  and 
Miss  Julia  Crosby  were  chosen  to  begin  this  work,  and  today  Miss  Crosby — a white-haired  veteran, 

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MISS  MARGARET  CLARK  GRIFFIS  AND  HER  PUPILS  FORTY  YEARS  AGO 


but  still  full  of  earnestness  and  vigor — is'at  the  head  of  the  historic  American  Mission  Home,  “212 
Bluff,”  Yokohama. 

The  work  developed  into  a school  exclusively  for  Japanese  girls,  and  later  became  a hive 
of  manifold  spiritual  industries — one  might  almost  call  it  a Biblical  college.  Here  Dr.  Samuel 
Robbins  Brown  gathered  his  Bible  classes  that  filled  rooms,  stairs,  and  hallways,  as  he  expounded 
the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular.  Here  Okuno,  who  brought  the  Day  of  Pentecost  in  Japan,  preached 
the  first  native  Christian  sermon  in  modern  Japan.  Here  prayer-meetings  were  well  attended 
by  re  d-coated  British  soldiers,  encamped  on  the  hills  nearby,  and  by  blue  jackets  from  American 
and  other  ships  of  war  and  peace,  and  by  Europeans  and  Americans  living  in  the  port.  Every 
variety  of  religious  services  was  carried  on  in  this  home  for  years. 

From  this  school  also  went  forth  hundreds  of  educated  Christian  women  to  make  the  new 
type  of  wife,  mother  and  home  needed  in  the  new  Japan.  It  is  impossible  to  dilate  on  the  work 
of  Mrs.  Louise  Pierson,  as  a Bible  reader  and  a trainer  of  scores  like  herself,  and  of  Mrs.  Pruyn’s 
labors  among  the  native  and  foreign  women  of  the  ports,  or  of  the  service  of  hundreds  of  native 
women,  mighty  in  the  scriptures.  The  records  of  results  are  not  only  visible  in  hearts  and  homes 
and  in  God’s  book,  but  are  even  as  discernible  as  those  glacial  striae  on  the  boulders,  which  tell  of 
a history  of  force  and  movement  that  out  of  azoic  rock  created  fertile  soil. 

Japan  took  her  proper  place  in  the  world’s  family  at  the  “ psychological  moment.”  Steam, 

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electricity  and  the  great  inventions  of  modern  times  were  ready  at  hand;  but,  more  especially, 
the  noble  ideas  of  Christian  centuries  had  ripened  and  were  brought  for  gathering.  The  Japanese 
hand  was  also  trained  for  picking;  its  owner  is  ever  an  eclectic. 

One  of  these  Christian  ideas  was  the  right  and  privilege  of  women  to  labor  for  their  sisters 
in  the  Savior’s  name.  “The  greatest  work  of  your  Christ  is  the  elevation  of  woman,”  said  a Chinese 
Mandarin  to  Andrew  Carnegie.  This  was  an  evangel  to  Japanese  womanhood,  because  all  the 
energies  of  the  statesmen  of  the  new  regime,  after  1868,  seemed  required  to  rebuild  the  nation. 
Instant  and  imperious  attention  to  purely  national  affairs,  in  which  the  men  were  prominent,  was 
demanded.  Even  the  most  enlightened  statesmen  were  slow  willed  or  heterodox  on  the  subject  of 
woman’s  position  in  civilization  and  the  home.  A secret  chapter,  of  which  I have  the  documents, 
would  prove  this,  but  we  congratulate  Japan  on  possessing  noble  pioneers  among  the  missionary 
women.  It  is  to  the  everlasting  honor  of  the  nation  and  government  that  the  single  women  who 
came  to  Japan  met  with  so  little  opposition,  or  insult,  either  veiled  or  open. 

From  the  first,  the  object  lesson  of  women  missionaries  and  their  families  was  one  as  powerful 
as  sunshine.  Japanese  testimony  is  abundant  to  prove  this.  The  influence  was  seen  in  the  home, 
in  the  church,  through  the  training  of  the  children,  and,  like  wafted  seed,  was  carried  all  over  the 
empire  by  Christian  sailors,  servants,  pupils  and  acquaintances.  From  the  first,  varied  methods 
were  adopted  for  planting  and  cultivating  Christian  ideas.  Despite  stony  places,  the  hard  road- 

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side,  and  the  fowls  of  the  air,  much  seed  ripened  to  the  Glory  of  God.  Schools  and  churches  de- 
veloped and  the  new  nation  was  born. 

The  kindergarten  was  introduced  early,  and  helped  admirably  to  blend  the  artistic  ideals 
of  the  East  and  the  West.  The  kindergarten  has  made  art  a genuine  yoke-fellow  in  the  service 
of  the  gospel.  Especially  is  this  true  where  American  women  have  had  the  good  sense  to  recognize 
how  vastly  superior  to  Americans  are  the  Japanese  in  artistic  sense  and  culture. 

One  frankly  confesses  to  surprise  and  wonder  that  some  of  the  pioneer  women  should  be  willing 
to  spend  their  cultured  lives  on  a missionary’s  pittance  in  a distant  land,  that  they  might  lift  up 
the  daughters  of  the  Island  Empire.  These  servants  of  God  have  been  used  to  create  a new  ideal 
of  womanhood  in  the  image  of  the  Christ. 

One  of  the  manifestations  of  a Christian  sentiment  that  developed  to  oppose  the  degradation 
of  womanhood  was  seen  in  the  passing  of  a law  which  forbade  the  incarceration  of  females  against 
their  will  in  those  moral  pest  houses  called  the  Yoshiwara,  provided  that  all  debts  against  the  pro- 
curer or  slave-master  had  been  discharged.  Happily,  there  were  Christian  heroes  who  were  brave 
enough  to  see  to  the  enforcement  of  the  law.  No  knight  fighting  a terrible  dragon,  or  soldier  charging 
to  capture  the  death-dealing  cannon,  was  braver  than  those  who  faced  the  brutal  rowdyism  of  the 
brothel-keepers.  In  one  year,  over  ten  thousand  unfortunate  girls  and  women  were  set  free.  At 
times,  the  moral  torch  has  burned  so  brightly  that  local  option  against  licensed  prostitution  has 

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been  made  effective.  On  more  than  one  occasion  when  fire  destroyed  the  disreputable  quarters 
of  a town,  it  seemed  as  tho  the  flames  of  moral  earnestness  would  also  scorch  out  of  existence  the 
moral  pestilence.  Nevertheless,  while  human  passions  are  so  strong  and  selfishness  so  great,  this 
evil  must  be  dealt  with  by  slow  and  patient  means.  We  believe  that  in  its  present  form  this  licensed 
vice  in  Japan  is  doomed. 

Woman’s  work  in  Japan  has  been  like  the  preparatory  work  of  the  farmer  in  preparing  the 
soil  for  a coming  harvest.  The  parasites  must  be  removed,  stones  gathered  out,  stumps  blasted, 
marshes  drained,  and  seed  planted.  The  real  autumnal  harvesting  of  the  fruit  is  coming  after 
years  filled  with  discouragement.  Today,  Christianity  in  Japan  is  deeply  rooted  below  and  shows 
rich  fruitage  above.  Many  women  are  faithful  wives  of  pastors,  deacons,  and  elders;  many  daughters 
of  Christian  homes  are  serving  in  the  church  as  deaconesses,  or  as  Sunday  School  teachers;  many 
others  are  zealous  and  useful  church  members,  who  keep  up  the  steady  fire  and  furnish  fresh  supplies 
of  spiritual  fuel.  A knowledge  of  human  nature  explains  a great  many  things;  and,  as  in  America, 
so  in  Japan,  many  a pastor  has  said,  with  mingled  sighing  and  gladness,  “What  would  the  church 
do  without  the  women?” 

The  creation  of  the  trained  nurse  has  been  a signal  triumph  of  Christianity.  Long  years 
before  the  idea  entered  the  heads  of  statesmen  or  publicists,  Dr.  John  C.  Berry,  M.  D.,  a missionary 
of  the  American  Board,  trained  a corps  of  Japanese  women  nurses.  The  Presbyterians,  also,  had 

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uniformed  female  nurses  in  their  hospitals — the  first  free  hospitals  opened  to  the  public  in  Japan. 
Thus  the  foundation  was  laid  for  the  first  courses  in  that  superb  healing  art  which  is  today  Japan’s 
glory  among  the  nations  of  Asia.  In  1894  China  went  to  war  without  even  a hospital  corps,  while 
Japan  had  nearly  a thousand  trained  female  nurses  ready.  In  1904,  when  the  clash  came  with  Russia, 
these  ministers  of  mercy  numbered  thousands.  “As  the  Hague  ordained,”  the  Empire  of  the  now 
Risen  Sun  set  an  example  in  the  treatment  of  her  prisoners  and  her  care  of  the  sick,  both  native  and 
alien,  that  surprised  the  world. 

In  the  higher  education  of  women  the  government  is  still  very  much  behind.  Perhaps  the 
average  Japanese  man  does  not  yet  take  woman  seriously  as  an  intellectual  companion.  The  famous 
Rescript  of  1873  called  for  the  education  of  girls  to  be  “of  the  same  grade  as  that  for  men.”  Yet 
forty  years  have  passed,  and,  despite  the  profuse  professions  of  loyalty  to  the  emperor,  the  two 
Women’s  Higher  Normal  Schools,  in  Tokyo  and  at  Nara,  with  450  pupils,  comprise  the  state  pro- 
vision for  the  higher  education.  These  schools  simply  train  teachers  for  the  secondary  and  primary 
schools,  but  make  no  aim  to  provide  general  culture.  The  government  provides  no  other  education 
for  girls  above  the  high  school.  There  is  a Woman’s  Private  Medical  School  in  the  capital,  which 
has  recently  received  recognition,  and  women  are  allowed  to  attend  lectures  in  the  Imperial  Univer- 
sities in  Tokyo  and  Kyoto. 

Miss  Tsuda’s  school,  besides  being  distinctively  Christian,  is  the  fore-runner  of  hundreds  of 

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others  which  shall  neither  be  connected  with  any  mission  board  nor  receive  any  support  from  the 
government,  but  shall  be  independent  and  self-supporting,  because  of  their  clientage  of  Christian 

families. 

In  the  Doshisha  University,  in  Kyoto,  is  also  a school  for  girls,  but  with  less  than  a hundred 
pupils.  It  is  not  under  foreign  missionary  supervision  nor  government  control,  but  is  a thorough 
Christian  school.  The  crying  need  today  is  for  a great  Christian  university  for  women. 

Economic  forces  are  fast  driving  Japanese  women  into  new  fields  of  activity.  Unless  they 
are  given  higher  education  with  Christian  ideals,  they  will  become  a menace  to  the  nation. 

Despite  limitations,  the  permanent  superiority  of  Christian  education  has  been  demonstrated. 

— From  the  Missionary  Review  of  the  World.  Reprinted  by  permission. 

1915 


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WOMAN’S  PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 
Room  48,  509  South  Wabash  Avenue 
Chicago 


Price,  3 cents  each ; 30  cents  a dozen 


